An ecstatic Kurtis Byrne celebrates his after scoring his side’s fourth goal

As it turned out, Eoin McCormack’s late equaliser for Galway meant Liam Buckley’s men were not quiet safe with this result.

But the manner of the fightback prompted a pitch invasion at full-time and will give everyone involved with the Inchicore club hope that they can finish the job off next week when they end their season away to Derry City.

City boss John Caulfield had claimed he would field the strongest side possible despite his side wrapping up the title with Tuesday night’s draw at home to Derry.

He cited a grievance about how Derry had fielded a weakened team against rivals Dundalk when the title race entered its final straight in 2014.

But there were eight changes to his starting line-up which — unless some players had injured themselves in the celebrations — was not his strongest possible team.

Keeper Mark McNulty’s impressive club record of 147 consecutive league appearances came to an end, with Alan Smith coming in to mind the nets for the visitors.

He, along with Seán McLoughlin, made his first league start of the season, with Achille Campion and Connor Ellis both making their second and summer recruit Robbie Williams his third.

Still, if the Saints’ relegation rivals may not have been too impressed with the personnel picked, they could have little quibble with the approach, or the scoreline after 20 minutes.

Kieran Sadlier had signalled his intent for the champions with an early shot from distance, which went narrowly wide after he twisted and turned from the right.

The visitors got a corner when Lukasz Skowron failed to properly deal with another Sadlier ball into the box and it led to the opening goal in the 12th minute.

Killian Brennan got his head to Shane Griffin’s corner but St Pat’s failed to win the second ball.

Campion nodded down to Ryan Delaney and he had time to turn before firing into the net.

The home side continued to struggle to deal with Sadlier, who doubled Cork’s lead in the 19th minute when he twisted inside and then outside Ian Bermingham before firing in off the far post from 25 yards out.